Skip to main content

James Blake

 144

James Blake

https://music.mxdwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/James-Blake_Beach-Goth_BLS_10222016-2-1280x720.jpg

James Blake

U.K. dance music sub-genre's don't usually produce soulful singer-songwriters... but then again, there aren't a lot of artists like Blake. James Blake uses neosoul keyboards, blip beats & layers of heart-starved snippets into a sonically full yet empty space of melody. His cover of Feist's "Limit to Your Love" is what first caught my attention. James released 2009's 12" Air & Lack Thereof, 2010's The Bells Sketch (E.P.), Klavierwerke (E.P.) and CMYK (E.P.), before releasing his self-titled debut album in 2011. Blake is soulful, having one of the sweetest voices in modern music. Since then he has released 2011's Enough Thunder (E.P.), & Love What Happened Here (E.P.) before releasing his sophomore effort & my personal favorite, 2013's Overgrown, with the amazing tracks "Retrograde" and the title track. Black has released two more albums since then: his third album, 2016's The Colour In Anything and 2019's fourth album Assume Form as well as 2020's Before (E.P.) and Covers (E.P.). On top of all this, Blake has collaborated & produced tracks with/for: Airhead, Beyoncé, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, Jay Z, Mount Kimbie, Kendrick Lamar, Future, Jayrock & Onehotrix Point Never. Always geneuine, never fake.

It's...

James Blake

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Band

19 The Band The Band First known as the Hawks, the Band got their initial fame as Bob Dylan’s backing band. Remember when Bob Dylan sold out and went electric, angering fans so much that they called him “ Judas ”? Well, you can thank all of that to the Band. For a band that sounds so fucking American (seriously- no band has done the whole Americana roots music better than the Band) it’s pretty funny most of them were Canadian. After finally branching out on their own in 1968, the Band would release some of the best music ever recorded… and if you thought the Beatles had a hell of a run- check out the Band’s discography: 1968’s Music From Big Pink , 1969’s self-titled The Band , 1970’s Stage Fright , 1971’s Cahoots , 1972’s live-album Rock of Ages , 1973’s Moondog Matinee , 1975’s Northern Lights -Southern Cross , and 1977’s Islands. Lynard Skynard may have taken the crown for greatest southern rock band, but for a band full of Canadians and Americans, the Band really embraces a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Crystal Castles

61 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles If you ever wondered what it would sound like if the video-game character Mario was catapulted through a plate-glass window- you'd get close to describing Crystal Castles. Cut up vocals and soothing waves of synth, live shows known for "fan riots, crowd surges, and metal barriers destroyed" Toronto electronic-punk-bleep-pop duo Crystal Castles is music that could only be made in the post-modern / post-millennium era, with a fan base that remembers the 8-bit era. Some dance music is meant to be played in the dark, but few dance bands bring their own darkness. This is dance music for sociopaths. Crystal Castles is the brain-child of Ethan Kath. The band began as a Kath solo project in 2003, but the producer recruited a 15-year-old Alice Glass to add vocals. Glass recorded rough soundcheck vocals for five tracks, which were secretly recorded by an en engineer, and Kath uploaded the material un der the name Crystal Castles. After rele...
Post a Comment
Read more

Courtney Barnett

58 Courtney Barnett Courtney Barnett I first came on board with Courtney Barnett on her excellently titled debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit . Songs like " Depreston " and " Pedestrian At Best " spoke to my inner- nineties-child... someone who was just an infant during grunge and missed out on the prime years of that era- this was like a last-minute invitation to that party. Barnett has the energy of Nirvana with the pop sensibilities of Pavement. She first came on everyone's radar with the release of the song :Avant Gardener." If you l isten to " Avant Gardene r," an autobiographical account of trying to turn a life around through gardening, only to be foiled by a severe allergic reaction; it features some of the best lyric-writing in music today. There was something special about this Australian singer-songwriter. Like a grunge hangover. Few speak truth to mundanity quite like singer/songwriter Courtney Barne...
1 comment
Read more